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Flower Drums : Sunshine Terror Babies

On their debut album Sunshine Terror Babies, Perth expats Flower Drums use classic ‘80s synthwave tropes as a vehicle to work through issues of isolation and relocation anxiety, but it ultimately falls short of its peers.

Kicking off the album with their three released singles ‘Night Swims’, ‘Back To Earth’ and ‘With You’ is a curious choice. It negates the innate joy of discovery that can help carry you through some of the rougher points in any release.

There are some brilliant sound bites scattered throughout; the groove in the last refrain of ‘Bottled Water’, the soothing gamalan-esque arpeggio in ‘With You’, pretty much the entirety of ‘XXVIII Mansions’.

For the most part, however, the album fails to live up to its potential. There are some great ideas that just aren’t developed, or that would do better somewhere else.

With some additional material acting as scaffolding, it’s easy to see that Sunshine Terror Babies would absolutely come to life during a live performance. The energy and showmanship they’re developing is definitely enough to get it over the line.